The Fermi Paradox 👽

Hey ya alien,

You ever look up at the night sky?

No, that’s your ceiling.

Go outside.

Ugh. Light pollution.

Go into the woods…the deep woods.

See that?

That’s a crap load of stars.

How many do you think?

No. Gen Z is tapped.

It’s 2,500.

On the clearest night sky, you can see 2,500 stars.

But here’s the thing.

These stars are just in our Milky Way…this tiny bit of the Milky Way.

The Milk Way has 250 billion stars.

But we’re just 1 galaxy.

Guess how many galaxies there are.

TAPPED.

The answer is 250 billion – meaning there are as many galaxies in the universe as stars in our galaxy.

Lemme repeat that.

THERE ARE AS MANY GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE AS STARS IN OUR GALAXY.

Still didn’t sink in?

Think of it this way.

Pick up a grain of sand.

For every grain of sand on Earth, there are 10,000 stars.

Get it?

But it gets crazier.

1% of these stars have planets like Earth.

So 1 grain of sand = 100 Earths.

How’s that make you feel?

Gnarly huh?

Well, buckle up…it gets gnarlier.

Because the Earth is a young planet – only 4.5 billion years young.

But most planets are old…

Like 8 billion years old.

Meaning they have a 3.5 billion year head start.

Can you imagine Earth in 100 years? 1,000 years? 1 million?

Now try 3.5 billion years…

Mind. Blown.

However that future looks, one thing is certain: we’re traveling all over space.

How?

~Energy~

See there are 3 levels of energy available:

1. Earth

2. Sun

3. Galaxy

(Don’t worry, I’ll get to the paradox soon.)

Right now, we’re on level #1 – close to using all the energy from our Earth.

The next level is using all the energy from our Sun – with something like a Dyson Sphere.

Then we’d use the Sun’s energy to send 2 human fleets to other stars – where we’d repeat the process.

If each replication took 500 years, we’d conquer a galaxy in ~3.5 million years.

3.5 million years = 1 galaxy.

But remember…

The average planet is 3.5 billion years older than Earth….that’s 1,000 times longer than the 3.5 million years needed for 1 galaxy.

Translation: Aliens should be all over the universe.

So this begs the question:

Great question.

Maybe there’s hope for Gen Z.

Because you just discovered the…

Badass, right?

The Fermi Paradox asks, “Where the hell are the aliens?”

There are 2 answers to Fermi:

1. We’re alone

2. We’re not alone

Let’s explore each.

1. We’re alone

We’re alone = no aliens.

Why are there no aliens?

Basically, there’s no life ‘cause something stops it….a Great Filter.

But the big question is: where’s the filter?

Before us?

Or after us?

The answer is critical.

Before us = HOORAY 🥳 

Because that means life is rare.

Aka every other life form never made it to our level. Our Earth had some special event that other Earth-like planets never had.

Top contenders are events that took a while — like billions of years.

Here are the top 2:

1. Life itself – Unclear how this happened but some think lightning zapped a molecular soup, creating life’s building blocks — like amino acids and nucleotides — which formed a cell that could self-replicate. This took 1 billion years.

2. Prokaryote to Eukaryote – One old bacteria ate another and told it to be the brain (nucleus). This took 2 billion years.

Some say the jump from semi-smart (monkey) to smart (human) is another leap – but it’s less convincing.

Regardless, this means you better hope we don’t find life on Mars.

Why?

Because if lame ass Mars can make life — especially complex life — we’re definitely not rare. So that’d mean the great filter is…

AFTER US!

[Cue: Villain laughing. Woman shrieking. Baby crying.]

After us = DEATH 💀

Basically it means something in the future kills us — probably just ourselves with nukes, climate change, or AI.

Thanks, Elon.

But for now, let’s explore option 2:

2. We’re not alone

Not alone = aliens exist (but we can’t see ‘em).

Why not?

There are a bunch of reasons.

Here are 5:

1. We’re rural – We live in a remote part of the universe – like Eskimos in northern Canada when Columbus landed in America.

2. We’re a zoo – Aliens observe us but don’t mess with us. They probably just giggle watching us read emails and throw poo at each other.

3. We’re useless – We’re like an anthill. Aliens are like Columbus. Would Columbus care about an anthill…or just ignore it, find gold, and diddle natives?

4. We’re dumb – Our technology is too primitive to understand alien signals. Or we just don’t understand reality because reality ain’t real mannnnnnn.

5. Physical world’s dumb – The universe is cold, dark, and lonely. Screw that. Aliens uploaded their brains to a virtual heaven with infinite virgins.

Okay…

So what do you do with this?

Hug me ❤️

First, because physical touch is my love language.

But second, because we’re either:

1. Stranded on a tiny rock in vast darkness

2. Surrounded by aliens

I’m hoping for #2

Crush Alien Ass,
Dylan & Henry 🌈

P.S if you enjoyed this lesson, forward it to a friend.

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P.P.S Still here? Click below to watch my Fermi Paradox video 👇

(Credit to Wait But Why — Tim Urban is a genius)